Hserv 572
Week 2 Reading Questions
Due before class January 15, 2003
Week 2, Question Set #1
1. In Stringfellow Barr's essay on dialogue, how did he
describe the difference between Thrasymachus' and Socrates' approach to dialogue?
2. Can private schools help children develop the "public virtues"
described in Parker's article? Why or why not?
3. What does Ruby Payne believe is the key motivator for learning for students
from generational poverty? Did you buy her "hidden rules" by class
division?
4. What is Putnam's definition of social capital? Name some organizations or
efforts that contribute to social capital in Seattle.
5. Contrast community with mass society (Lyon article).
6. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?
Hserv 572
Due before class January 22, 2003
Week 3, Question Set #2
1. Using Kawachi and Kennedy, explain why disparity in income within societies, not just low income, may be associated with poorer health outcomes.
2. Joe Flower refers to ways of measuring wealth beyond "economic capital."
Name three ways and say something about them.
3. In his classic piece on The Tragedy of the Commons, biologist Garrett Hardin
says appealing to individual conscience in restraining population growth is
wrong, because doing so would "work toward the elimination of conscience
from the race." What, instead, does he recommend? Do you buy it?
4. Give an example of a "stalemate" as Kemmis uses the word. Draw
on your experience in your study community/organization or from a community
where you have lived. How does Kemmis use the term "next American frontier?"
5. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?
Hserv 572
Due before class January 29, 2003
Week 4, Question Set #3
1. Name a building in Seattle that "dishonors the public realm," and say why you chose it (Kunstler).
2. When will we know we have genuine equality for blacks (Lebowitz)? (Hint:
how many Clarence Thomases is enough?)
3. Which four of McIntosh’s white privilege conditions resonated most closely
with your own experience if you're a white person? If you're not, have you noticed
being deprived of these privileges? Would you add anything to the list?
4. I always thought Rosa Parks was just a tired black cleaning lady who one
day up and decided she just plumb wasn’t going to move to the back of the
bus and caused a ruckus that led to a political movement through the miracle
of timing and luck. Correct me? (Garrow) Also, how did Martin Luther King emerge
as a leader in this whole thing?
5. The Ture and Hamilton piece was written in the 1960s. Is it out-dated or
does it still hold true? Say a few words in defense of your viewpoint.
6. Do you think Condi Rice and Colin Powell are "captive leaders" as Ture and Hamilton use the term? Why or why not?
7. Does either color or sex determine the level and frequency of medical care
that individual patients receive? (Satell)
8. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?
Hserv 572
Due before class February 5, 2003
Week 5, Question Set #4
1. Will Social Security be available to you when you retire?
2. The "Guide to Conducting Focus Group Research" provides step-by-step
instructions for conducting focus groups. (Kroll)
Say you're on the faculty at the UW School of Public Health and you get a grant
to reduce pediatric asthma visits to the ER by helping parents manage their
kids' asthma better. You want to do focus groups to help you pick some action
strategies to accomplish this goal.
• How would you organize the groups (around what homogeneous identity)?
• What questions (and sub-questions or prompts) would you ask?
3. Select a public issue that is currently controversial (e.g., salmon habitat,
light rail, sweatshop labor). Describe the competing parties' interests and
their positions. Suggest some ways in which interests might overlap in places
to allow the parties to "get to yes." (Fisher)
4. What is your Thomas-Kilman conflict mode?
5. Thinking back to the Kemmis articles and the Fisher and Ury piece, do you
think they would agree with the approach posed by Bobo? What are the similarities?
What are the contrasts?
6. What is the difference between a problem and an issue?
7. Sarasohn: What word single word describes the EOI’s political viewpoint?
(Hint: it is not Conservative or liberal, but it is in that range of labels.)
To what sector of America’s socio-economic continuum is the EOI appealing?
8. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?
Hserv 572
Due before class February 12, 2003
Week 6, Question Set #5
1. From the Alinsky interview: Describe Saul Alinsky's
first experience as an organizer. How did he justify it? How did Alinsky avoid
being ruined by Joseph McCarthy's House UnAmerican Activities Committee? What
was your favorite Alinsky organizing escapade, and why?
2. Compare and contrast the measures of sustainability proposed by Wendell Berry
and those proposed by the Northwest Policy Center. Name three areas where the
lists agree. Are there any areas where the lists disagree? (You'll find Berry's
criteria on pages 30-31.)
3. What are three things that characterize "healthy communities?"
Why?
4. Rogers: Where did the funding for COPS come from? What was the role of women in COPS?
5. Name a volunteering fact from the Points of Light handout that surprised you.
6. In looking at the Open Space Technology approach to running an idea-generating meting, describe the fundamental difference(s) between this and nominal group technique. Note: Delbecq's NGT reading is just background to support the nominal group technique meetings we'll demonstrate in class. It might serve as a handy reference in case you organize one with a group. To answer this question, just skim Delbecq's reading.
7. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?
Hserv 572
Due before class February 19, 2003
Week 7, Question Set #6
1. Meredith Minkler says community organization is one
of the oldest tools within the helping professions (dating to the late 1800s),
and that real organizing requires increasing community competence (about which
we've read earlier this quarter). She refers to (but does not fully embrace)
Rothman's three distinct models of community organization practice--locality
development, social planning and social action. One principle is to "starting
where the people are," by helping communities select their own goals. Goals
should be winnable and specific (as we learned from Alinsky). Let's say we are
working with a community to address one of the determinants of health (social
class, environment, education, etc.) which are affecting its health. Select
one of these determinants, and deconstruct it (per her "issue selection"
notes on p. 272) into problems and issues. Define the problem, then propose
some winnable, simple and specific issues for that determinant that meet her
criteria for a "good issue."
2. Leonard Duhl is another one of the leaders in the "healthy communities
movement" (many of whom publish in the National Civic Review). He speaks
of the role of social entrepreneurs as using traditional business entrepreneurial
skills to work on issues related to the common good of communities. Do you think
Duhl would view Saul Alinsky as a "social entrepreneur" according
to the Duhl definition? Why or why not?
3. Chong: Was the crash of the Sept 11 flight in Pennsylvania an example of
the Prisoner’s Dilemma or an Assurance Game? Why?
4. Erenreich: this one's just for fun.
5. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?
Hserv 572
Due before class February 26, 2003
Week 8, Question Set #7
1. Stephen Fawcett lays out ten values to guide research
based in communities. What did you think of this observation that research usually
addresses downstream targets and low income families, and that institutions
and people with power can avoid being researched (p. 624). Can you think of
a research project, real or imagined, that meets Fawcett’s ten values and
might turn the tables by researching institutions or populations of powerful
people.
2. In your own words, compare and contrast Rossi’s three kinds of evaluation research: policy evaluation, diagnostic program evaluation, and impact and efficiency evaluation.
3. Some reviewers have lamented Rossi’s de-emphasis of impact evaluation research. Whose side do you take in the debate?
4. What did Israel, et al. find in their Detroit area study to be the predictors of perceived control or empowerment?
5. Does Mechanic feel income inequality explains health anymore than poverty alone? What are his supporting arguments? Do you agree?
6. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?
Hserv 572
Due before class March 5, 2003
Week 9, Question Set #8
1. Robert Putnam (we've seen him before) writes in "Bowling
Alone" that tertiary organizations, nonprofit organizations and support
groups are taking the place of conventional civic organizations in America.
He says America's "social capital" standing is slipping relative to
other nations. Then he offers some possible explanations ("Why is US Social
Capital Eroding?"). Which of his explanations seems most plausible to you?
Or, if none of these is satisfying, offer your own explanation.
2. David Coburn writes at length(!) about what he calls "neo-liberal political doctrines" which promote globalized, market-dominated economies that have the effect of creating extreme income inequalities. He seems irked that some of his fellow academics spend time exploring the mechanism of "the possible social/psycho-biological mechanisms" that explain how social factors are tied to health, rather than focusing on the causes of inequality itself. He says inequality is an inherent by-product of capitalist market economies. "The more market-oriented the regime the greater the income inequality," he says, and the lower the health status of the population. What evidence does he provide to back up this assertion? Do you buy this?
3. On page 206, Cottrell says "It is quite possible that a very different cultural context would require a different set of conditions for effective collective action. It would be interesting and useful for clarifying ideas about competence as here conceived to analyze the requirements for community competence under an authoritarian system." Can you think of a characteristic of community competence that might emerge in an authoritarian system? In which category would it fall?
4. What do you conclude from the Goeppinger/Baglioni
article about:
• --the relationship between community competence and income?
• --the relationship between individual competence and community competence?
5. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?
Hserv 572
Due before class March 12, 2003
Week 10, Question Set #9
1. Alinsky, "Rules for Radicals:" What is Alinski’s
position on honoring the poor?
2. Loeb: Both Loeb and Greider write about how difficult it is to "do"
democracy. Who is most encouraging to you? Why?
3. Levy: What three things did La Causa boycott?
4. Greider, "Class Conflict"--What effect does the tax code have on citizens’ attempts at political influence?
5. What three things did La Causa boycott? (Levy reading)
6. Which reading did you
enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?